Key Contacts
Friday, March 13, 2009 at 12:09PM 
Patrick Nagle, Interim Festival Director and Founder
Producer of the rejected film, “Andy Warhol’s Factory People”, Nagle is no spring chicken, but a seasoned documentary film professional and international distributor. His company, Planet Group Entertainment is based in Paris. The company has produced and currently distributes over 1000 hours of documentaries world-wide.
Nagle has a stake in Sarasota. He was born in Florida and is a part time resident of Sarasota. Somehow he found his way to spend 25 years between New York City and Los Angeles as a professional in the ad world before turning his hand to filmmaking.
His partner and companion, writer Catherine O’Sullivan Shorr, is an old “Hollywood Girl” who managed to grab an Emmy, be up for an Oscar or two, and win the presteigous Caesar in Paris for her film work. Director of “Andy Warhol’s Factory People”, Catherine was born in Sarasota. “Factory People” is her documentary film directorial debut.
Contact:
patricknagle@yahoo.com
Susan Gervasi, Filmmaker Liaison
Susan Gervasi is a Washington, D.C.-area documentary filmmaker. She has also worked as a newspaper reporter, publishing more than 60 articles as special correspondent for The Washington Post, writing numerous articles for Washington City Paper and working fulltime for The Prince George’s Journal newspaper.
Susan launched her production company, Lazy G Films, in 2008, and has directed three independent documentaries. “Tessamatuck,” explores a suburban neighborhood’s bitter fight to prevent development of a land parcel believed to contain slave graves and Native American artifacts. “Mary Surratt: Mystery Woman of the Lincoln Assassination” examines the life of the first woman executed by the federal government. “On the Trail of Jack Thorp,” narrated by Kelli Biggs - great-granddaughter of silent screen cowboy movie star Tom Mix - investigates the life and times of the New Mexican cowboy who was the first to collect and publish a book of cowboy ballads.
Susan also serves as volunteer publicist for Greenbelt, Maryland’s Utopia Film Festival, held each October in the utopian community of Greenbelt - a suburban Washington, D.C. town built during the New Deal. Susan and her husband, Frank Gervasi, spend part of the year in Bradenton.
Tamara Haines Gilman, Senior Field Coordinator and Operations Manager
Rejection has turned into acceptance in Tamara L. Gilman's world. A lover of film and film festivals; now a collaborator on the rejected documentary, "Behind the Addiction", she lives and plays in downtown Sarasota .Tamara hails from the Motor City and has a B.A. in Advertising from Michigan State University .
She married an Anesthesiologist after college, builta home andbrought her children into the worldon Anna Maria Island, Florida. Prettybasic"married withchildren"until she became a divorcee and began aneight year relationship with an addict.During this time period, she experienced the other side of life.Determined to make something good come out of those eight years of bad times, she decided to open up andshare her experience with the world through this documentary. Her goal: to educate people on an issue that's affecting almost every family in the world; everyone knows an addict today. Future plans include a follow up to the documentary.
Chris Bessounian, Writer/Director Fringe Festival Founder
Chris recently completed his first feature film,Detached, a suspense thriller which he wrote and directed with Tianna Langham. Prior toDetached, Chris directed the British Academy Award winning short film,The Kolaborator. The Kolaboratorscreened in over 40 film festivals around the world and has won numerous awards including the Best Foreign Film Award from theSedona International Film Festival, an Outstanding Screenplay Award from theAngelus Film Festival, and the Best Short Film Award from thePort Townsend Film Festival. It also won a Telly Award and was selected to screen on KCET TV as part of theirFine Cut Film Festival.
Prior to writing and directing films, Chris worked as both an actor and a director of photography in Sydney, Australia. He acted in both theatre and television and he shot documentaries forSelf-Raising Flower,a documentary company devoted to promoting youth awareness of global issues.Healso shot and directed a 12-part documentary about the arts in Sydney. In 2004, Chris moved to England where he worked as an Editor,before moving to Los Angeles in 2005 to study film at theLos Angeles Film School.
Chris was born in Sudan to Armenian/Egyptian parents but fled Africa with his family when the Sudanese government was overthrown, to start a new life in Australia. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
Huck Melnick, Film Program Schedules, Fringe Festival Founder
Huck Melnick, a director based in England, recently completed the independent feature Hardly Bear to Look at You, which is playing in this festival. With Jeremy Herman, he produced, directed and acted in the half-hour film My Yacht (2006), which has been screened on television in Romania and the UK. As a script developer, he participated in the ARISTA Adept programme, and has consulted on screenwriting for the Script Factory and numerous independent producers. As an actor, he played the title role in The Undertaker (Estonia, 2005), directed by Annaleena Piel Linna, and appears in Isy Oliver's forthcoming British feature Cats and Trees, alongside Joe Swanberg and Maya von Doll.
Josh Lowman, Director, Founder Fringe Festival, Instigator
Josh Lowman creates films, commercials and music videos that stake out fresh territory in pop culture. He recently founded San Francisco-based production company Andorra and formed an animation and music-focused directing team—with San Francisco-based art director Rinee Shah—called Church and Steak.
Previously Josh was creative director at San Francisco advertising agency Leagas Delaney. In 2006, he created a broadband channel for Nike called JogaTV, which delivered a unique mix of interactivity and storytelling to soccer-obsessed teens. In 2007 he directed a series of viral and TV spots for San Jose's soccer team, the Earthquakes.
Al and Monika Tomlinson, Proprietors, The Rustic Grill